'Monkeyface'

'Monkeyface' -- one man's humorous play on racial stereotyping -- draws

a crowd in Santa Monica, LA county, USA, not very long ago. Your

ratings, critiques and remarks are invited and most welcome. If you rate

harshly, very critically or wish to make an observation, please submit a

helpful and constructive comment; thank you in advance for sharing

your photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Enjoy!

John

I see this as a document on two levels. One of course is what you have captured; people enjoying a street show which mocks racial stereotyping. The other is a more "humane" document. Behind the mask, I wonder whether the man does this as a result of some of his experiences. There may be a lot of pain behind that smiling mask; a situation that has often been portrayed well in the past by various films (Chaplin comes to mind at once). The audience is a mixture of racial identities and they seem to be bonded by the humour of the moment. Wonder how much impact the man made that day; did it translate into earnings? Selling one's innermost feelings to gain sustenance has been one of the stories of human civilisation. 

I love the man with the sunglasses. By his sheer expression, he stands out (rather inadvertently, if he was not part of the show) as one of the "villains" of a piece of this nature. Regards.

Your critiques keep getting better and better (along with your photography)  Perhaps there is relationship?

Your critique here I found most interesting.

This man is a 'street comedian' doing his 'act' on the Santa Monica pier, and frankly I found him hilarious.  He featured audience participation and was extremely good in getting the audience to participate.  At one point, dressed as Batman (black Batman? in costume, he had audience members hoist him and carry him around overhead.  (See prior photo my portfolio -0- I found it bizarre,a I found this)

In fact, this man's act bordered on the surreal.  Monkey face is a prime example.  Here is a black man making 'fun' of a time worn racial stereotype and actually drawing guffaws and hilarious ones at that.

No mere chuckles but guffaws and hysterics.

he was quick and knew his audience, and to my mind, seemed headed for television, Las Vegas, or the club circuit.  I wished him well when I showed him his photos (which he liked very much).

This is the sort of photo one might see in a fine art photo book or gallery, because of its incongruity.

It really needs no caption to grab attention.

While you may see the man with outrageous glasses as a 'villain' I see him as a 'foil'.  Without him and those glasses, to accent that he is 'audience and 'audience' is pretty outrageous in itself and also surreal, this photo loses impact, and in the process might not have been worth posting at all.  Hail to the man with outrageous glasses to offset the surrealness of Monkeyface.

Some parts of this photo are surreal, others are 'real life' and the question is which parts are which. Is Monkey face surreal or is he the real one. Is Mr. Outrageous Glasses also surreal or is he the true reality?

In any case, if this engaged you, it was a success. If it causes others to engage and ask questions, it is a success. for that is the purpose of such photos -- to spark interest and cause questions -- literally to engage the viewer.

But not to answer the questions posed.  That is for the audience alone for these photos, not the photographer.

I don't know the answer to what is probably a rhetorical question of yours -- whether he embodies reality in his mockery of stereotyping and whether that stems from some personal history or group history. 

Probably it does and this is both a coping mechanism and something he understands very deeply, and thus can control and knows how it will affect his audience, and thus it gives him the power of laughter over them.

I know I'd like to publish this, seriously or exhibit it together with the other photo I took of him and about a dozen or two similarly interesting and surreal 'Carney' or 'busker' type photos, as part of a project.

I'd be interesting and eye candy for he aficionado of the surreal.

Your comment was quite intelligent and showed true insight.  I cannot answer all your questions of course; for sure they are rhetorical, and I recognize that.

My best to you.  Thanks for an intelligent comment.

john

John (Crosley)